Ferry Point Community Advocates, one of many vocal organizations in the area, is expressing the need for more catch basins in the neighborhood that has seen an explosion in both residential and industrial development.
According to residents, the streets of Ferry Point have become clogged with water whenever it rains, because of a critical lack of catch basins that is especially acute on three small residential streets in the area, which have no catch basins at all.
However, pothole-choked Bush Avenue is no better, says the organization’s leader Dotti Poggi, who feels that the roadways in the small community need to have more catch basins installed in order to stem the tide that leaks into backyards and basements whenever it rains heavily.
“In the entire residential portion of the community, there are no catch basins whatsoever, except on the Hutchinson River Parkway service road,” Poggi noted. “Once, a group of posters that had been attached to a fence fell into the catch basins near the highway, flooding the street and the basements of homes.”
Poggi, a longtime resident, said the issue of flooding wasn’t as much of a concern years ago when vacant lots dotted Ferry Point, but now, with so many new homes built in recent years, what were once empty lots are now backyards and basements.
“Brush Avenue is about half-a-mile, and we have four catch-basins from Lafayette Avenue down to Randall Avenue,” Poggi explained. “I would think that in other places, the norm for such a stretch is about 20.”
In addition, Poggi says that right off of Bruckner Boulevard and Brush Avenue, a huge pool of water builds up opposite Home Depot, creating a muddy area that is then hit by trucks, splashing the water all around.
Community Board 10 is looking into the matter, and has consulted with a state agency to study the environmental impact of the waterlogged basins.
“I put in for a drainage study of Ferry Point in the budget consultations,” said CB 10 district manager Kenneth Kearns. “I received the parameters of the study from Dotti Poggi. The study has been put in this year’s capital budget, and the State Department of Environmental Conservation is looking into the matter.”
The State DEC did not comment on the matter as of press time.
